Ford's Jim Farley on beating China, and the storm nobody sees coming

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Bob Safian** (1:58)
Hey, everyone, Bob here. Before we jump into today's episode, I'm joined by Jean-Marie Manetti, CEO and co-founder of CoinShares, which supports and sponsors Rapid Response, something we deeply appreciate Jean-Marie. There's been so much change in the world of digital assets. What differentiates a crypto native firm today? What do they understand about volatility that traditional players are still learning?

**Jean-Marie Manetti** (2:25)
Yeah, I think traditional managers study volatility. They are students of volatility, or I think crypto native firms are practitioners of volatility. We don't just package digital assets as well, we trade them, we all bitcoin on our own balance sheet. And so we operate in the market we invest in. That's not a marketing timeline, it's really an operating principle for us.

**Bob Safian** (2:44)
Over the years, crypto has gone through waves of boom and bust. Is there a difference between a firm that sort of weathered the cycles and versus one that learned from them?

**Jean-Marie Manetti** (2:56)
Yeah, surviving a crash is luck, I would say. Learning from it is more of a business decision. And so weathering means you survive, learning means you change where you operate. So sometimes this kind of bear market are great opportunity for people to keep building.

**Bob Safian** (3:12)
If the question in 2015 was, is bitcoin for real? What's the defining question that we should be asking in 2026 and beyond?

**Jean-Marie Manetti** (3:23)
The question isn't, is bitcoin real anymore? That's done. It's more what happened when every portfolio has a digital asset allocation attached to it. So the question has evolved. 2015, is it real? 2020, should I own it? 2024, how do I access it? And now what does the portfolio look like that includes digital assets as a permanent allocation pattern? The firm that will matter in the next decade are the ones that build the infrastructure during the last one. So the best time to build was a decade ago. The second best time is never because someone already did it.

**Bob Safian** (3:56)
Jean-Marie, this has been fascinating. Thank you so much for the chat and for your support of our show.

**Jean-Marie Manetti** (4:02)
Thank you, Bob. Have a nice day.

**Bob Safian** (4:04)
And now on to today's episode.

**Jim Farley** (4:08)
The car business in most industrial countries is the heart and soul of the manufacturing base.
It creates a lot of jobs. It has a bigger impact for every job you create in a factory. There's like tenfold that got created in the economy. Today, the Chinese car industry, the new vehicle sold there every year is about 29 million, but they have 50 million units of capacity. They're now the largest exporter in the world. The production capacity in China is so large, it could basically take care of the entire North America market.

**Bob Safian** (4:48)
That's Jim Farley, CEO of the Ford Motor Company, with the Strait of Hormuz in the spotlight and gas prices high. I wanted to talk with Jim about how the auto industry is being impacted. Jim's answers surprised me, focusing as much on China as on the Middle East. We also talk about the challenge and responsibility of leading an iconic American brand right now.